Originally Posted by GixxerStu
Stu, I agree with your opening statement and that was the point of my original post – smokers and overweight patients are being blatantly discriminated against by the NHS.
Data shows that more than a quarter of Primary Care Trusts in England have brought in new restrictions based on patients’ lifestyle criteria in the last year.
In the case of one trust, NHS Hertfordshire, a controversial ban imposed last year on knee and hip operations for anyone with a body mass index (BMI) over 30 as well as smokers, has been extended to cover all routine surgery.
This is a blanket policy and the patients are not medically examined by a doctor to determine whether their lifestyles could pose an additional health risk during surgical procedures.
I made the factual statement that smokers subsidize the NHS (indirectly) because I believe it is relevant to my argument.
Politicians and medical bodies have been telling us for years that smokers place a financial burden on the NHS. We are told that it now costs £6.5 billion to treat patients with smoking related illnesses. Joe public is more likely to accept this discriminatory policy if he is force-fed with half-truths.
The treasury’s take in duty and tax from all tobacco products sold in this financial year will probably exceed £12 billion. And or course, smokers and the obese are not exempt from paying NI contributions.
There are a number of reports out from different organisations, which claim that non-smokers who live a healthy lifestyle cost the state more in the long –term because on average they live much longer – quoting pensions and care for long lasting-illnesses such as Alzheimer’s disease as factors.
I take it the surgeons you are referring to are not those who have made a small fortune out of performing bariatric surgery? :-?
